Samantha Fox gets engaged to her manager

More than a decade before Britney Spears became a slave 4 u and Christina Aguilera got dirrrty, pop singer Samantha Fox positioned herself as the — to steal a line from Britney — “not so innocent” vixen next door. In the mid-80s, when Tiffany was bouncing around in malls and Debbie Gibson was singing about electric youth, Sam Fox churned out a slew of hits that did not shy away from the subject of sex, such as “Touch Me (I Want Your Body)” and “Naughty Girls (Need Love Too).”

Much on Fox’s career was founded on catering to male fantasies. Before she spent the latter half of the ’80s singing odes to (presumably heterosexual) flirtation and sex, she first gained attention when she posed topless for British tabloid The Sun‘s Page Three feature at the age of 16.

Thus, it was a surprise to many when she came out in 2003, telling the press that she had been living with her girlfriend and manager Myra Stratton. (Then again, that was the era known as “Before Lindsay.” Nowadays, even the top pick for Maxim‘s Hot 100 can come out and no one bats an eye.)